I finished my holiday with a couple of full days in Chania. I had been wondering what I would do with myself – was I mistaken to have gone back there for a fourth time in as many visits? – but the answer was ‘no’. It’s as beautiful as ever, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen, and I do enjoy just walking around.
Of course I refreshed my memories of the places I already – the lanes around the harbour, the walk out to the lighthouse, and the climb up to Kastelli overlooking the harbour, and I enjoyed seeing them all once again. But I also managed to find one or two places that I hadn’t visited before, the Archeological Museum of Chania, and also the Splantzia area.
The museum was OK. To be truthful, there’s no way it could match the the glories of the Archeological Museum in Heraklion. Chania doesn’t have a Knossos on its doorstep, and while there has been a settlement in the Chania area for a very long time, it seems as if it was always a minor place in the high Minoan period (proto- and neo-Palatial periods) – it only came into some prominence in the later post-palatial or Mycenaean period. And of course, the fact that Chania was then built on top of Kydonia doesn’t help archaeologists – in a place like Chania you can only dig when a site is available, which isn’t often. But there were some lovely Roman mosaics in the museum; indeed, I would say that it’s stronger for remains from the Classical and Roman periods than the Minoan.
I enjoyed exploring the area around Splantzia square. I’d seen (from a distance) one obvious sign of its existence on each of my previous visits, the minaret of Agios Nikolaus church, but had never been able to get up close. This time I did. But what’s a minaret doing on a church? Well, the answer is that after the conquest of Crete by the Ottoman Turks in the 17th century, most churches were converted into mosques, and gained a minaret; then when Crete became fully independent in the early part of the 20th century, the mosques were converted back to churches and the minarets demolished – except (in Crete) in the case of this one. The church was originally part of a Dominican monastery, and there are some ruins in the area around the existing church that I assume data back to the monastic period. Since the Dominicans were a western (Catholic) order, I believe that the monastery would date from the Venetian period.
I also did a sunset cruise. I’d done one of these on my first visit, on the good ship ‘Irene’ and I was disappointed to see her moored up in a far corner of the harbour looking rather sorry for herself – lots of rust streaks and generally not in a good-looking condition. But I found that the sunset cruises were being run this year in a smaller but still traditional boat, and on my final evening in Chania I went on one. It was pretty much the mix as before – a short boat trip out to an island a couple of miles off Chania harbour; sit there in the gentle swell for 40 minutes or so while some people went for a swim; then enjoy some refreshments of fruit and raki; and then as the sun dropped below the island, the run back to the harbour. It was advertised as being from 7:30 to 8:30, but in the event it was more like 7:45 to almost 9pm.
And after that I spent the rest of the evening – until quite late, actually – in the Melodica cafe-bar on Sifaka just outside the Byzantine walls. I’d visited it last year on a hot afternoon, and did the same this year, but this was the first time I’d visited during an evening, and I certainly had a relaxing time. Excellent Cretan wine, and a bit of conversation – recommended. It’s definitely not a tourist place – I was the only non-Greek person there – but welcoming and peaceful.
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